The following article is intended for those watching at UKTV Play pace.
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Series XII is going to be a weird contradiction. As we’re all aware this series was written and filmed back to back with XI so while it’s reasonable to expect a very similar tone and style to the series we’ve already seen and analysed to death, that’s by no means a guarantee. Production efforts have been made to separate the two in subtle ways with changes to the main sets but what I didn’t consider before sitting down to watch Cured is how this double banking has the potential of making this series strangely unique. While we’re not aware of the writing order of the series, we do know that all of XII was filmed after XI had wrapped and a very short break, which means for the first time in actual decades a new series of Red Dwarf was not starting from scratch. We maybe even have to go as far back as the gap between the first two series to draw a proper parallel for this situation.

So what’s my point? Well, I feel like Cured greatly benefits from this. Confidence and general quality in writing, direction and especially in the performances that has produced an episode that despite some issues felt so comfortable and effortless, especially with the characterisation. If this is how things start to go when this team gets some proper momentum, then it’s a shame XIII and XIV aren’t following closely behind.

In the very recent past it’s been no secret that the structuring of episodes have been a little problematic. X often had many, flailing plot strands and while XI rectified this it often left us with odd scenes that felt tacked on and purposeless, or if they were connected it was in a way that did not pay off satisfyingly. With Cured‘spoker scene I immediately thought back to the Mineopoly scene in Samsara and started to worry. They’re both gentle introductions into the episode with a situation that brings out the key characteristics of the characters, and they’re both called back to as part of a rather abrupt ending, but in both cases the poker scene is much, much better. There’s been a lot of talk of the Cat’s portrayal getting too broad, but I don’t see that as an issue here, especially when you have episodes like Can of Worms to compare it against. We’ll see what’s set up here come to greater fruition later on, but even taken on its own the Cat’s interpretation of the rules and blatant attempts to twist them in his favour, as well as being unable to behave in a way that reacts to how others might be viewing him, feels entirely consistent with the character as we know him.

In what will become a little bit of a characteristic of this episode, the plot very quickly lurches into view with the distress call (or ‘SSL’, presumably sent over the https protocol) and before we know it we’re back on Starbug and being treated to a bizarre but amusing startup sequence. How you feel about this will undoubtedly rely on how much disbelief you are comfortable with suspending at this point. I’m pretty relaxed about the fact that this is a process we’ve never, ever seen before and it is so clearly included here as some sort of setup for later. Everything is starting to fall apart and weird quirks are copping up which is something immediately demonstrated with the very funny broken thruster sequence. All together it fits as a nice extra bit of flavour to the setting in general that suits the current tone of the show – everything and everyone is getting a bit older and quirkier, so let’s just get on with it.

Now is as good a time as any to mention the model work in this episode. While we definitely saw our fair share of model ship work last year, it almost seems like things have been stepped up a bit here to the point where we’re seeing whole model sets and environments. It’s not something that’s at all common in the modern era and so it’s really a special thrill seeing Starbug take off from a specially built landing bay and frequent cutaways during the episode to the space station itself, lending more than a little Series V vibe to the proceedings. While in the past the model work can feel like patch work to join up scenes (especially the slapdash ship flybys), here it most certainly feels like an integral part of the structure of the episode and really helps with the sense of place.

Speaking of series V, the opening scenes on the United America space station absolutely scream Quarantine. The atmosphere, the setup and the dialogue all gave me a very warm fuzzy feeling. There’s nothing amazingly funny going on, but this gentle familiar atmosphere coupled with it being part of a brand new episode gave me a certain thrill that strangely enough has been a feeling that’s been relatively rare in the Dave era. Again, the episode kept exuding a confidence – everyone playing their characters well, Doug writing with the confidence he can only have knowing his writing is on form and a production that knows exactly how to make every shot feel like Red Dwarf and reliably give out that famous production value. I’m not going to keep going on about this aspect of the episode as it’s something that’s present all the way through and I swear if I say the word “confidence” one more time I might actually stab myself to death to spare you all.

I did mention that the plot is good, and in general that is definitely true throughout. The central concept of a space station dedicated to curing evil through clones of famous historical psychopaths is great, and definitely good enough to carry it through the issue of being very reminiscent of Meltdown. But, essentially, the premise allows for tonnes of potential for an interesting sci-fi plot but more importantly a load of comedy from the prospect of meeting these ‘good’ versions of historical cunts. On this front, Stalin, Vlad and Messalina are all quite good but obviously the main star of the show here is Ryan Gage’s Hitler.

I find myself, for the first time in my life, pondering the similarities between Hitler and Jesus. James Baxter’s portrayal in Lemons was popular but felt distinctly off for me, and I never got on with the cheeky Mackham style. Of course, this is then explained in a way when it’s revealed he’s not the *actual* Jesus, but if anything that makes things even less satisfying as it seems like a cop-out. It feels like the portrayal of Hitler suffers from an almost identical problem. Gage is incredibly funny, with a range of faces that would make Tim Curry envious, but it’s clear at no point is his job to play a convincing Hitler. Instead he’s far closer to The League of Gentleman’s Herr Lipp than anything else, and it ends up feeling like the cliché of there being two types of German: angry or camp. So really, my issue isn’t so much that he’s not convincingly Hitler it’s just that the alternative take chosen feels like it it lessens the impact of having the character in the first place, which might’ve been kept if he was played just a *little* closer to the subject. Of course this is all turned into a joke when we find out the truth, but again that does not make for a satisfying plot point.

That all said, the scene up to and including the guitar duet is incredibly enjoyable (the choice of song was marvelous) and there are lines from Hitler that were genuinely very funny with “it’s because I’m Hitler, isn’t it?” being a particular stand out. In fact, it’s a shame there wasn’t more time given over to Lister and Hitler’s budding friendship before the final act started to get in the way. As it stands, Lister is against leaving them all to die once the ultimate peril is revealed, but it doesn’t really come with any weight as it does in, say, Confidence & Paranoia where a bond between Lister and Confidence is far more convincingly built up over a very short period of time. This scene also highlights another missed opportunity which would be to have the Cat and Rimmer both befriend one of the others. If Cat and Messalina had got along better and Rimmer had actually acted like Rimmer and immediately tried to befriend Stalin or Vlad then we would’ve ended up with a much more interesting dilemma where perhaps Kryten is the only one advocating their deaths and the others are all too attached to go along. As it stands, though, it feels like things are being left a little unfinished as everything is rushed towards the finale, especially the incredibly throwaway nature of the crew’s capture and subsequent escape. In the case of Kryten’s situation, even Red Dwarf USA got a good gag out of his disembodied head, but here there was nothing.

What the escape leads to and really starts to be bring to the surface, however, is the Cat’s behaviour. When the crew are about to rescue Rimmer, the Cat is his normal self and advocates for just leaving him in there. Earlier on he was also incredibly insensitive and egotistical with Messalina. None of this particularly sticks out because it’s perfectly standard and consistent behaviour for the Cat, so the reveal that he is a psychopath during the final scene really works as a result, because of *course* he’s a psychopath and his flip flopping between the crew and Professor Telford is arguably the comedic highlight of the episode. The final act with the Cat shooting the Professor in the head without hesitation only causes an issue with me because I don’t really believe the gun would’ve been handed over to him in the first place, but the act itself feels consistent to me, despite how harsh it feels.

So, we’re left with a curious episode, really. The central concept of the episode is strong and while the guest characters didn’t particularly connect that well with me, they still do a good job of bringing in the laughs. Our core cast, while underused in places, are well written and extremely well played in a way that I’ve already suggested could well be due to the fact at this point they’d had so long to get into the rhythm. The problems, then, mainly reside in how the plot progressed and eventually fizzled out into somewhat of a confusing jumble. It took me two goes to fully catch why he’s reprogrammed the droids and this whole reveal still feels weird, but at that point the details weren’t really being given much consideration as things were being quickly being brought to a close. It’s a shame because everything was very close to coming together so nicely, and even the very abrupt punchline ending hit the right note for me. We’re still not used to senseless death in Red Dwarf but then I have no problem with the Cat behaving in this way, which is more than I can say for some of the similarly sharp endings we’ve had in the past.

Nicely done. :) I really wish I rated it as highly as you do… and yeah there IS lots to like about ‘Cured’! I just feel there are a ton of missed opportunities with gags in the 2nd half. Though it’s far from the worst episode out of XI and XII (so far). I enjoyed it more than Samsara and Can of Worms, without a doubt.

III is on the UKTV Play atm and, on randomly watching Body Swap, I realised just how restrained the cast are with dialogue delivery in those days. Almost every line in the new series episodes is shouted or generally played too big, which doesn’t automatically make it funnier…

Anyhow! We’re in the middle of a new series of Red Dwarf!!! These are good and bountiful times indeed. :D

III is on the UKTV Play atm and, on randomly watching Body Swap, I realised just how restrained the cast are with dialogue delivery in those days. Almost every line in the new series episodes is shouted or generally played too big, which doesn’t automatically make it funnier…

Wish I liked this one more. It corrects so many of the faults of X; and the clunkier moments of XI. Pretty much every thing pays off, even the seemingly static first scene. And yet, I think this is still a draft away from working particularly well.

All of the guest cast, aside from Hitler, are underwritten and underused. The other “patients” might as well not be there for all they do, and if the script had paid some kind of interest to Telford and his motivation, the “mystery” element might have actually worked. That bit felt kind of by-the- numbers; a hurried conclusion which gets rid of the guest cast, resolves the fact that they’re not human AND presents a threat. The threat of the Simulant in Trojan was similarly rushed, but that episode had a few more things going for it.

I don’t have much of a problem with Cat’s behaviour in this. It’s a far better episode for him (and me) than Can of Worms. I prefer him callous and shallow, to pathetic and ridiculously stupid.

This is mid-range Dwarf, and they’re the most puzzling episodes of all to get my head around. I’m used to loving episodes, or having a list of complaints. This one? It’s just a bit… blah. The fuel for a great episode is there, but it never really strikes the match.

Essentially though, it didn’t make me laugh very much, and the best laughs came courtesy of a guest star, which you can’t say too often. I’m struggling to even remember Rimmer/Chris in this one.

I kind of get the Lemons comparison, as that was another episode that was simply OK, without ever threatening to be amazing.

Oh and that duet goes on a verse too long. The idea is funnier than the execution.

I actually think the opposite, oddly…:p on paper it’s utterly insane, but Craig and Ryan manage to sell it so well!

I still reckon a cool twist would have been Telford being the real Hitler. When he comes back into the room one of them says ‘who are you really?’ and he says ‘hmm you really don’t know??’ and proceeds to shave most of his beard off, leaving just the tache, then he speaks in a German accent. They’d already had the Rimmer dialogue mentioning the conspiracy theory of him surviving, so why not?? Yeah it’s lunacy but it could have worked! Unless it suddenly gets really offensive if you have the real Hitler there…the real Hitler who meets his demise by the Cat shooting him in the face….? Hmm…..

I agree that the execution is funnier than the idea; if you’d told me the new episode of Red Dwarf would feature Lister having a guitar battle/duet with an effeminate Hitler, I would have told you, and Doug Naylor, to fuck off. It at least made me laugh a couple times in the episode.

“if you’d told me the new episode of Red Dwarf would feature Lister having a guitar battle/duet with an effeminate Hitler, I would have told you, and Doug Naylor, to fuck off”

and I would have told you to fuck off for simply not understanding the series at all. But I won’t on this occasion, but consider this a warning.

only joking?
or am i?
only joking?
or am i?
joking am i or!

Changing the subject briefly I was watching Polymorph last night and noticed a few times in the warehouse setting that Robert accidentally uses his own voice for Kryten. Never noticed that before and it was the 5th episode to be recorded which makes it stranger because if it was much earlier you’d more likely to forgive Robert forgetting to put on the Kryten voice. But at the end of the day, do I just need a new television?

By the “idea” of it, I mean within the confines of the story. The preceding scene is Hitler trying to persuade Lister to jam with him, which contains a couple of the best moments in the episode. The following scene dorsn’t really work quite as well. The rendition goes on too long, and I’m not sure the The Happy Wanderer is really a great fit.

^ A lot of these issues come about because I feel the show needs a better director, then Doug can focus on the writing and production etc. X suffered because he was literally doing everything. Hoping future series will have a new director. Bring back the Series VI director he was cool. I’m afraid the legacy of both these series’ will be the poor pacing and editing at times which is a shame because this is easily Doug’s finest work since VI.

I guess you could have started the show on Starbug and then you would have had more time at the space station and with the story. I’m sure someone could have sweet-talked him out of it, but oh, no, Doug got his own way blundering in with his size 12s…….

“the plot very quickly lurches into view with the distress call (or ‘SSL’, presumably sent over the https protocol)”

The alarm was because they’d got a “Space Station Located”, not a distress signal.
(Yes, I’m that kind of annoying nitpicker. It bothered me at the time as it seemed odd to rely on viewers reading the screen to know what the hell an SSL was.)

I think it was a great choice. It’s an old-time song that Hitler would have liked and Lister is just having fun with it. If they’d have gone with an 80s song there would a been a risk of Craig just looking like a middle-aged bloke trying to relive his glory years.

I just re-watched Cured, and found it to be a lot better than I thought on my initial viewing. There are still a few -really- limp jokes near the start that , being at the beginning of the first episode of a new series, really puts a damper on one’s enthusiasm for the new material, but almost everything from Rupert Murdoch onward is really rather good. I initially gave it 6/10 but now would feel comfortable going for 7/10.

“You make it sound like my old school”, “1970s football team” and some of Camp Hitler’s stuff is still pretty dire. Vlad The Impaler is my favourite of the ‘droids, even though he isn’t given much – what he is given is great and delivered spectacularly. Did we ever explain the odd pause before “thruster”? Something to do with a deleted scene if I remember right?

The beginning of the episode after the poker scene (which I found much more enjoyable second time ’round) is also -very- mechanical “what is it Kryten”, “well sirs here’s some exposition”, and then there’s more mechanical exposition later. I know this is necessary, but it never really felt so forced in previous series.

Sign language scene was golden.
I really liked Kryten’s cheeky “well, according to the psycho-scan”, that was a really nice touch.

The lazy selection of an obviously modern phone for the selfie bothered me.

For that specific joke, I think it makes sense to use a recognizable smartphone. It’s very much a contemporary reference (although the term “selfie” I can easily imagine sticking around in the future), and it would just distract from the point to build some elaborate sci-fi camera prop. It’s a very quick joke and the smartphone conveys the point clearly and instantly. To me, that makes it the best choice. It’s for the sake of brevity in the execution, and the joke is very good.

I mean if we’re going to complain about using non-futuristic contemporary tech, you can find instances of it all across the early series. The difference is that stuff isn’t contemporary any more, and so we see it as charmingly retro. I find it incredibly weird to watch newer Simpsons episodes with contemporary technology because I so associate the show with the 1990s, and it’s equally weird to see a smartphone in Red Dwarf. But the show featuring plain old regular video cassettes in Series I is exactly the same thing – contemporary technology. If the use of a smartphone for a joke in Series XII is lazy, then using VHS tapes in the early series is equally lazy.

I can appreciate why people can find it weird to see a modern contemporary reference in Red Dwarf, but it doesn’t seem like a fair point to criticize when the show has always been making contemporary references.

Disappointing that Cured didn’t fare a bit better in the Pearl Poll. I will always have a soft spot for it as it is the episode I saw recorded, but even that bias aside I don’t believe this is a “bottom third” episode by any stretch.

This, exactly. Red Dwarf has always had its tech an intentionally odd mix of modern/recent and futuristic, just like the triangle VHSs and a box TV on a rolling cart controlled by a superintelligent computer.

I was surprised to see this one so low in the Pearl Poll, but only because of the general response here. For me I still find it pretty weak, comedically. And the guitar bit goes on for about three times as long as it needs to.

i think the fact that it went on so long was what made it funny. when the guitar bit started up i wasnt laughing but then it kept going for so long that it became absurd which made me laugh

I tend to love those kind of jokes (“Maaargh”, for example), but the song just felt like way too much of a set-piece for it to feel that way for me. It felt closer to the Blue Midget dance in tone than anything. I didn’t cringe quite as much as that, but I found it very difficult.

Well, I’m a little late to this review party but I hated it. Worst episode ever imo as nothing “worked” for me except the start up sequence. Figured out the “big reveal” about 10 minutes into the show (poker face ….. Cat ….. etc.) Too much “wrong” with it for me. Lister ACTUALLY playing halfway decent guitar? No way! The wires dangling down from Kryten’s neck when impaled on the mop? How many times over the years have we seen Kryten’s head removed? Did you ever even ONCE see wires then? I always thought Listers big “fear” was tarantulas too btw. Anyway…….. sure glad the rest turned out much better, Time Wave excepted, and truth be told I liked IT better than Cured.

Those things are way too insignificant to hang a “worst episode ever” tag off. One or two quick gags that happen to be incongruous to other quick gags in RD history makes the episode worse than Timewave and 70-odd others? Kryten’s body is a lot like Bender’s in Futurama – its make up changes depending on the need for a particular gag. Lister’s biggest fear being a tarantula was already a contradiction from Polymorph so it changing again is hardly crime of the century. And figuring out a “big reveal” doesn’t make an episode dreadful either – this isn’t Inside No. 9, the twist is very rarely the point of the show.

>The wires dangling down from Kryten’s neck when impaled on the mop? How many times over the years have we seen Kryten’s head removed? Did you ever even ONCE see wires then?

i’m perplexed as to how wires dangling down from Kryten’s head makes Cured a worse episode than the mean-spirited and homophobic Timewave, or the ridiculous and nonsensical basketball erection parade of Pete

I notice for some people what ruins an episode most for them are contradictions… and to a certain extent i get it but i think these sorta things are to be expected at this point.

For me the Cat not knowing how to bluff could be considered a contradiction since various episodes have gave the impression they have played poker many times over the years… but then Cured needed to regress the Cat back down to being born again yesterday so you could pull off the naivety jokes

Probably doesn’t help that Dave Dwarf has been the most nostalgic of the shows run and so referencing things makes you hold a tighter mindset on continuity

given that it’s established in Holoship that whenever they’re not out having adventures they’re playing poker and getting drunk, i suppose Cat not knowing how to do a poker face is somewhat of a continuity error. but “how was THAT for a pokey face” is a really clever and satisfying end to the episode so i reckon you could easily let it slide

If contradictions and continuity errors ruin a show for you then really you shouldn’t be watching Red Dwarf, a show that openly throws away continuity in favour of jokes and story. Is Legion the worst episode ever because a quick gag contradicts Lister’s appendix continuity? Seemingly not – people voted it into the Top 10 in the Pearl Poll. Is Justice the worst episode ever because much of the episode hinges on a death count that contradicts entire previous series? Nope – 15th best episode of all time. And to dislike an episode because of a Cat contradiction would mean disliking at least half of Red Dwarf!

I can understand, if not agree with, people not liking Cured. It won’t be considered a classic episode. But “worst episode ever” needs proper justification given that there are a small handful of really poor episodes of the show, and the couple of things that are mentioned by RBOD do not even come close.

Well, ………………trying to explain the unexplainable here I guess but…. No it wasn’t any one thing that I mentioned that makes the episode so poor for me. Yes all those I mentioned contributed I suppose but the whole “feel” of the episode was just bad for me. I didn’t get a laugh at all after the start up sequence period. I don’t like the Hitler thing at all either. The whole episode just reeked of …… reaching, I suppose is the word I’m looking for. Predicable. I also didn’t like the subject matter as I don’t think “evil” is a condition that can be “cured”, it was just an all around weak episode, imho. I don’t give a shit about continuity or contradictions either. I look at Red Dwarf as a collection of short stories not as a novel … in literary terms. I’ve been a fan since season/series 1, hell I had to special order the series 1 DVD! $64 freaking dollars!

At the end of the day though ……comedy is subjective. More so than other genres I think and I just did not think it was funny. I got more pure laughter from Time Wave for christs sake! So, hate my selection of “Cured” if you want, I really don’t care because to ME it was the worst episode of them all.

See I thought Cured was pretty damn underwhelming on my first view, but a second viewing made me appreciate it more, perhaps because I was going into it less critically or with lower expectations. But the start up gag I found to be absolutely dire both times, although it is very funny when it comes up again at the end

the Dave era is more inconsistent in pacing imo. many of the episodes in the XI-XII block felt a bit rushed and often didn’t have endings (Officer Rimmer and Timewave being the most notable examples). it feels weird compared to nearly every single episode before XI/XII where all the episodes felt like they had a beginning, a middle and an end.

even Dimension Jump had a more satisfying ending, and that had a random skutter hammond organ scene at the end

Cured was a really underwhelming episode for me. I found so much of it really, really broad without much of the nuance of what I enjoy in Red Dwarf. The central concept was ok, but didn’t seem to be exploring dramatically new or exciting territory. I got the feeling that the ‘evil’ characters, particularly stuff like Hitler playing guitar with Lister, were meant to be really striking and memorable, but this is the show that gave us Queen Victoria shooting Hitler with a machine gun over 25 years before, so it didn’t really have the shock value for that. The Starbug start up gag I thought was really poor, although I can forgive it because the later reference is excellent. But in general, yeah, it just felt like a second rate mid-era knock-off, almost fan fic-esque, rather than a solid, memorable episode.

it also wasn’t very funny, imo. the deleted scene where rimmer speculates telford might be evil purely because “he’s got a beard…what’s he hiding?” made me laugh more than anything in the actual episode. i mean i guess Cured is okay overall, but it’s not particularly impressive

also i really didn’t get the “bunker” joke. i still have no idea what that was all about

it also wasn’t very funny, imo. the deleted scene where rimmer speculates telford might be evil purely because “he’s got a beard…what’s he hiding?” made me laugh more than anything in the actual episode.

O.K. So, after being castigated here (and elsewhere) for my opinion on this episode I went back and re-watched it last night. Again. Now, after 3 viewings ……….drumroll please ……… I still consider it my personal least favorite episode of the entire run of the show. It ……. just ……. wasn’t …….. funny ……. to ……. me. I am planning a marathon from series 1 to XII for the first of April so I guess its possible for me to change my opinion of it then ( I try to be as open minded as possible about everything), but……

I was so looking forward to it upon first airing (and series XII in general) that I subscribed to BritBox for that sole purpose. Now, I think XII is the best series of the Dave era by far and that’s even with Cured dragging it down for me so MAYBE I’m missing something. Now, the line “Rupert Murdock , Not responding to treatment” did give me a chuckle but that was tempered by, upon a 3rd viewing, the start up sequence losing some of its appeal to me.

I have read some comment about the villains’ overall plan in the episode being somewhat pointless when you realize he put on a big charade that he perhaps didn’t need to do.

Indeed, but that is true of pretty much any plan devised by pretty much any villain in pretty much any form of entertainment. “Ah, my ridiculously circuitous plan is one-quarter complete!”.

RBOD, I don’t think anyone was castigating you for your opinion specifically. You are entitled to hate whatever episodes you like, but to claim “worst episode ever” and then follow with a bunch of trivialities is always going to be challenged – especially when you go on to say that the almost-universally-despised Timewave is better!